Letter: County wrong to censor web link about censorship

Sep 27, 2017

The B.S. controversy continues.

First, the government censored me from calling B.S. on the sales tax increase on Mukilteo’s November ballot. I appealed the government’s decision. And, unsurprisingly, the government’s lawyer agreed with the government that censoring me was OK. So then I changed B.S. to Bolshevik. But then the government censored me from including a hyperlink to a news story that talked about the censorship.

There are plenty of precedents of voter’s pamphlets allowing the censored to alert the readers that the author was censored. In this year’s primary, Pam Pollock, candidate for SeaTac’s City Council, wrote and had published the following.

“Shaunie Wheeler was recently fined for concealing her income as a special interest lobbyist. (I tried to further contrast myself with her, but King County staff censored my statement. I should be able to inform voters about verifiable facts in my own statement. I don’t feel King County is acting fairly and I don’t understand why they are protecting her.)”

I could have written about the censorship I’ve been subjected to, just as Ms. Pollock did, but instead I simply included a hyperlink to a news story about it (www.tinyurl.com/censorship2017).

So we’re not talking about the government censoring B.S.; now it’s the government censoring a news story. Including a hyperlink to a news story is not offensive in any way.

The government should not interfere with my right to encourage Mukilteo’s voters to reject this unnecessary tax increase.